Thursday, January 20, 2005

Bushwacked, the sequel

So President Bush has been inaugurated for his second term today. I was never a fan of Bush but hadn't realised how over time I came to loathe him and his methods. Now, whenever I hear his voice I feel my eyes roll and a slight groan emits from my throat.

His inaugural address indicates a rather ambitious second term, which I'm sure gives many Americans reason to cringe. Once again Bush justifies all actions and intents with the guise of "freedom" and "liberty". I have a hard time believing that the President is practicing what he preaches. Statements such as "America will not impose our own style of government on the unwilling" somehow ring hollow to me. Especially when he later says "We will persistently clarify the choice before every ruler and every nation -- the moral choice between oppression, which is always wrong, and freedom, which is eternally right." Does the mantle of President allow a man to dictate what is right and what is freedom? Doesn't the act of imposing one's own terms of liberty paradoxically damn him of stripping others of their freedom?

To me, Bush welcomes people into a life of freedom and liberty as long as it's under the administration's definition of freedom and liberty. But I guess it's not so hard to imagine from a country created by colonialism, expanded by Manifest Destiny, and now empowered to create their Freedom Franchises. Everyone has a freedom to choose. Either assimilate or get crush by the Liberty Machine.

Okay, that's kind of dramatic. Maybe I'm just in a doomsday mood since someone freaking keyed my car!! I just got an estimate on it and it'll cost $1500! Well, insurance will pay it but it's going to be in the shop for around seven days and I'm just having terrrible karma on my VW lately. I'm already bracing myself for when I walk up to find my car stripped and on blocks.